The Roaring Thirties! A unique, brilliant and little-known Kirby creation!
In 1971, Jack Kirby was in transition, moving from Marvel to DC. In the previous ten years or so, he had been the major force in reviving the costumed superhero in comic books. He was getting ready to go to DC and create the Fourth World saga as well as a bunch of other new characters. But in this transitional phase, he did a few magazines for Hampshire Distributing, Limited. This is one of them. In The Days of the Mob revives the gangster stories Kirby had drawn in the 1940s for titles like Headline Comics.
The first story starts with Warden Fry (1) saying to you, the reader, “Welcome to Hell!” The book just gets more and more intense from there. Included are mind-bendingly violent stories about Ma Barker and Al Capone. The centerspread is a classic Kirby double-page action scene. The art is ably inked by Vince Colletta, who does a great job of clarifying while keeping Kirby’s dynamic energy.
Most significantly, Kirby didn’t just draw these stories — he wrote them, signaling his new approach to comics in the 1970s, as a writer-penciller.
This copy has the foldout poster missing. Shows significant wear and tear with no markings or tears. See photos. This issue was reprinted an a $40 hardcover edition but — for some reason I can’t figure — the art for this issue was reproduced in sepia instead of black, sapping it of much of it’s visual presence. The book also contains the stories for the unpublished second issue - and these are in black.
For more information, see this essay by Harry Mendryk at the Jack Kirby Museum website and this YouTube episode of Cartoon Kayfabe with Jim Rugg and the late Ed Piskor, dedicated to this magazine.
The Roaring Thirties! A unique, brilliant and little-known Kirby creation!
In 1971, Jack Kirby was in transition, moving from Marvel to DC. In the previous ten years or so, he had been the major force in reviving the costumed superhero in comic books. He was getting ready to go to DC and create the Fourth World saga as well as a bunch of other new characters. But in this transitional phase, he did a few magazines for Hampshire Distributing, Limited. This is one of them. In The Days of the Mob revives the gangster stories Kirby had drawn in the 1940s for titles like Headline Comics.
The first story starts with Warden Fry (1) saying to you, the reader, “Welcome to Hell!” The book just gets more and more intense from there. Included are mind-bendingly violent stories about Ma Barker and Al Capone. The centerspread is a classic Kirby double-page action scene. The art is ably inked by Vince Colletta, who does a great job of clarifying while keeping Kirby’s dynamic energy.
Most significantly, Kirby didn’t just draw these stories — he wrote them, signaling his new approach to comics in the 1970s, as a writer-penciller.
This copy has the foldout poster missing. Shows significant wear and tear with no markings or tears. See photos. This issue was reprinted an a $40 hardcover edition but — for some reason I can’t figure — the art for this issue was reproduced in sepia instead of black, sapping it of much of it’s visual presence. The book also contains the stories for the unpublished second issue - and these are in black.
For more information, see this essay by Harry Mendryk at the Jack Kirby Museum website and this YouTube episode of Cartoon Kayfabe with Jim Rugg and the late Ed Piskor, dedicated to this magazine.